Home Life Chapter 1: Garwin's Aren't Cowards, a covenant fanfic

Heavily revamped! I am going back over and trying to do up my writing a little bit. In the process I am reacquainting myself with the series in order to write the promised final sequel. Yes, you heard me right. I will also be adding in SLASH so if that's not your cup of tea kindly leave now. Or read on, just don't flame me for it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my hopefully improved series. I've left the original authors notes in, just for posterity.

Ok, this is kinda random, and done to death but it annoyed me that there was never any elaboration into anyone else's family situation and I thought I'd take a crack at it myself. I also noted that the behaviours Reid exhibits relate quite closely to those that are often portrayed as possessed by children with troubled family lives. Thus I put on the most depressing songs I own and proceeded to put Reid through as much pain, angst and fluffyness as I possibly could. I also tried to take slightly different approach to most people, you know, originality and all that.

Obviously Reid's name is not Luka however the song seemed to fit and thus I threw it in.

Warnings: Abuse and severe fluff

Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own Reid Garwin or in fact anything from the Covenant, I just happen to borrow him for my own sadistic pleasure. Neither do I own the song Luka by Suzanne Vega.

Reid Garwin stumbled and fell. Again. He'd lost count on the third step. Since then there had only been...he waited patiently for his vision to stop blurring. Two landings. he looked up. Another three to go. It hurt, but he didn't say anything, didn't move for a moment, somehow it hurt less this way.

My name is Luka

I live on the second floor

I live upstairs from you

Yes I think you've seen me before

Once there would have been questions. When he was younger the bruises and cuts had always attracted attention, though it had faded into a passing interest from most people of the years. Everyone just assumed he'd been fighting. It was just Reid Garwin after all. Poor, brooding Reid Garwin. Beloved bad boy and scarred trouble maker. There were only three people who really took any notice anymore. Three people out of a whole schoolful to whom he was more than just the clown or the eye candy, something other than scenery. He would have to face Pogue's judgemental eyes and silent disapproval. Caleb's reprimands and yet another of his lectures about fighting against people who couldn't Use. And Tyler. Tyler would just stand there and look disappointed and slightly worried and that was the worst thing of all. Out of all of them it was always the thought of facing Tyler that made Reid's heart sink into his scuffed boots. It was Tyler's eyes that haunted his dreams. At least the less painful ones. Depending on how you looked at it.

It's not me! Reid wanted to scream at them. I don't choose to turn up to school looking like I've gone a few rounds with a heavy weight boxing champion. I don't enjoy having nothing left without washed out bloodstains somewhere on it. But he didn't. He never would. Because he was Reid Garwin and Garwin's weren't weak. Garwin's didn't cry. Garwin's didn't lose their temper. Garwin's didn't scream. Reid had broken all of these precious commandments, left by his father, one by one. Except for the most important one. The one he held so close to his heart that no one would ever know. Especially not Him. Garwin's are never weak.

He could hear the echo of his father's voice saying those words, even now. Especially now. Years after the man had died. Years after he had abandoned Reid into this hell

If you hear something late at night

Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight

His mother might as well have been dead. Sometimes Reid wondered if life would be better off if she was. If they both were, she and him. Then he wouldn't have to hear her crying late at night. She wouldn't come in when he was lying on the carpet, bleeding and unable to move. She wouldn't come out from wherever she had been left and he wouldn't have to feel her soft tears on his skin. Wouldn't have to know how much she hurt and wouldn't know how much she hurt him. So he wouldn't have to know that she cared. That she just didn't love as much as she feared. Feared for him. Feared the man she had married. Feared the monster she had invited into the building that had once been her home and sanctuary.

Just don't ask me what it was

Reid didn't know why He did it. Maybe because she loved him, loved her only son. Maybe He was jealous of that love. And so He tried to destroy it. Maybe He hoped that the Reid whose battered body occupied the rooms of her house would no longer appeal to her. Maybe He wanted to kill Reid, but was never quite brave, or stupid, enough to go that far. Maybe He hoped one day Reid would die and she would come to him for comfort. Maybe He just liked to cause pain.

I think it's because I'm clumsy

I try not to talk too loud

Maybe it's because I'm crazy

I try not to act too proud

Sometimes Reid would attract His attention. Knock something over as he entered the house, make some sound trying to sneak up the stairs to his room, breathe too loudly. But mostly the man was just in a foul temper. A bad day at work, a bad day at home or something generally upsetting seemed to be enough for Reid to earn himself a thorough beating. Sometimes Reid though He knew. He knew what Reid had that He didn't. Then he would push the thought out of his mind, superstitiously afraid that He would somehow pluck it from him. That He would really kill Reid in the hopes of taking that power. It was then that he wondered if he was going mad. That wasn't just stupid, it was crazy.

They only hit until you cry

And after that you don't ask why

You just don't argue anymore

He curled up in the corner. Sobs wrenching his body. Tears pouring down his face as freely as blood poured down his back. Soon He would go away, Reid told himself, soon He would leave and let him bleed in peace. Soon his mother would come, his friends would come, his father would come, anyone would come. Come and pull him off, stop the blows descending on his back. He felt the belt buckle cut into his back again as fresh tears poured down his face. He couldn't even scream, that much strength was beyond him. And so he lost himself in thoughts of a rescue that would never come. Drowned the pain with hope. But it never came. Surcease would come and he would pull himself, inch by painful inch, up to his room. And then he would cry himself to sleep and hope for a better tomorrow amidst dreams of darkness and violence. Before getting up to go and lie to the saviours he dreamt of yet again.

Yes I think I'm okay

I walked into the door again

Well, if you ask that's what I'll say

And it's not your business anyway

More questions. Another fight, an accident at home, anything as long as they didn't know. To them he was Reid Garwin, tough guy and bad boy extraordinaire and it would stay that way. It wasn't so hard, really, being the tough guy. They wondered why he picked fights, why he provoked everyone past endurance. He needed it. He loved to feel the blows rain down on him, tiny and ineffective, but more it was than that. He wanted to, loved to, needed to, lash out to fight back at anyone who hurt him. Because against them he knew he could win. But against him fighting only made it worse.

So he hid behind his mask and smiled at his tormentors. They were nothing. They knew nothing. And when Tyler looked at him with those big sad eyes he went out and drowned the thoughts with girls and beer and pretended he was a normal troubled teen. That he wasn't hiding the biggest secret of his life from people who should have been his brothers. Sometimes he wished the group weren't so tight knit.

I guess I'd like to be alone

With nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am

He knew it was wrong, knew parents didn't treat their kids this way. But Garwin's were no cowards and he would take it. And no one would ever know.

Ok, there are two directions I could take this fic. I could do the other two's home life's or I could do everyone's reactions to Reid and his various bruises and so forth. You people choose. Even if you don't care please review and tell me what you think of the fic. You read this far you must have some feelings about it.

Sammy